The Alcohol Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in an Acute Mental Health Setting
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The Alcohol Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) in an Acute Mental Health Setting Karen Heslop & Calum Ross & Bernadette Osmond & Dianne Wynaden
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Up to sixty percent of people admitted to acute mental health services in Australia present with a clinically significant co-occurring drug and/or alcohol problem. These individuals experience poorer health outcomes when compared to the general population and to those people who have a mental illness but have no co-morbid alcohol and drug problems. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that many nurses working in the area do not have the knowledge and skills and confidence to work effectively with this patient population. Drug and alcohol assessment tools, considered the gold standard, generally assess only one substance at a time or provide little specific information on the particular substance of use or abuse. An amended version of the World Health Organisation, (WHO) Alcohol Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test Version 3 (ASSIST V3.0) and associated brief interventions was implemented following an in-vivo education program at an acute mental health inpatient unit in Western Australia. This before and after intervention’ study utilised a self-rating questionnaire and a knowledge quiz to assess nurses’ knowledge of drug and alcohol issues as well as their level of confidence to work with people who have a mental illness and co-occurring drug and alcohol problems. Translation of acquired knowledge into patient care was also evaluated through a review of patient medical records. K. Heslop (*) : D. Wynaden Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute/ School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University, GPO Box U 1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia e-mail: [email protected] Karen. Heslop e-mail: [email protected] D. Wynaden e-mail: [email protected] K. Heslop : C. Ross : B. Osmond Department of Psychiatry, Royal Perth Hospital Perth, Perth, WA, Australia C. Ross e-mail: [email protected] B. Osmond e-mail: [email protected]
Int J Ment Health Addiction
Significant improvement in nurses’ knowledge was reported along with increased clinical confidence and skills to identify, assess, and manage this group of patients and to provide them with information and referral to appropriate agencies in the community. Keywords ASSIST . Drug and alcohol assessment . Nurses’ knowledge and confidence . Mental illness
The number of people who present to acute mental health services with co-occurring mental illness and drug and/or alcohol problems is increasing with an upward trend in rates of substance abuse/dependence noted between 1997–1998 (Kavanagh et al. 2004) and 2010 (Moore et al. 2012). Rates between 25 to 60 % have been reported in other Australian studies (Hoolahan et al. 2006) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2007) and in the United Kingdom (20–37 %) and the United States of America (38–50 %) (Carra and Johnson 2009). These trends reflect the increa
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